Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

I think music should be judged on what it is. It should be very high and above everything else. It is a beautiful way of bringing people together, a little bit of an oasis in this messed-up world.

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things together.

It's all about creation and surprise. It just needs to be appreciated and watered like flowers. You have to water flowers. These peaks will come again.

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress...so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

Positivity of Life and Negativity of Mind cannot exist together. The more you keep on adapting the positivity into your mind, the more beautiful your world will become.

When an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

That's something that Francis [Ford Coppola] would always say. I remember when I was doing Tetro, he said, "Stay innocent. I'm 69 years old, and I'm still innocent."

The heart sometimes leaps forward when the head tells us to be still. When this happens, patience is clearly called for as we seek to find a proper balance between impulse and discretion.

The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind.

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

People don't trust the federal government as it relates to health care.

Find out what your passions are and gauge your limit. Because success requires hard work and perseverance and sadly, not everyone has the two.